Anti-vaccination group plans to appeal ASA decision on billboard

Anti-vaccination group Waves NZ plans to appeal an Advertising Standards Authority decision that one of its billboards breached advertising standards. Photo / Brett Phibbs

An anti-vaccination group plans to appeal an Advertising Standards Authority decision that one of its billboards breached advertising standards.

The billboard in question was an advertisement for Waves NZ which was erected above Auckland's Southern Motorway showing a photo of a man, with a prominent Maori-inspired tattoo on his arm, holding a baby.

Alongside the picture were the words: "If you knew the ingredients in a vaccine, would you RISK it?"

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received nearly 150 complaints about the billboard, slamming the advertisement as misleading, deceptive, scaremongering and socially irresponsible, given that convincing people not to vaccinate was harmful to children and to wider society.

The billboard owners told the ASA the advertisement was installed without going through their normal vetting process and if they had followed it correctly, it would not have been installed.

The board found the advertisement was also misleading, as the likely message that vaccination was not safe wasn't "sufficiently substantiated" by the advertiser, its advertisement "unjustifiably played on fear", and was "socially irresponsible".

The board upheld the complaints, finding the advertisement in breach of several rules of its code of ethics.

Waves NZ argued it could see no reason why the advertisement breaches the ASA's code of ethics, claiming its intention was to promote "informed consent" and to point parents toward MedSafe data sheets on its website.

Despite this, Waves NZ said it planned to appeal the decision saying "the public has the right to access information about vaccine ingredients. Waves NZ asserts that the implied risk is easily verified".

"Waves NZ encourages all people to read the accompanying data sheets and investigate for themselves what is in a vaccine before they make a choice and give consent.

"Waves NZ sincerely thanks Aotearoa for the support they have shown the group since October 1, when the billboard was installed near a busy motorway on-ramp."